Though the forced ones are a bit weird to see as ATE's, the others actually don't add to the plot, just the characters and introduces people before you normally would in the plot. If you were someone who could care less about Tantalus or what Dagger, Eiko, or Quina were doing, why you were trying to start off the next story sequence in town; the ability to "cut the fat" as they would say makes a more cohesive plot focus story that doesn't force you to wade through stuff that has no real impact on the overall plot.

So I would say you are all being grumps about the feature most likely cause you can't bring yourselves to skip any of them so to you, this stuff is mandatory whereas other people would see it as tedious filler that mostly focuses on NPCs and non-entities in your party.